Great Teachers Aren’t Scripted

Great teachers don’t teach the same year twenty-eight times. They teach twenty-eight years once. I may reuse activities or revisit lessons that worked well before, but I never reuse the same plans year after year. Why? Because students change. Every class brings different strengths, different challenges, and different needs. Teaching isn’t about repeating what worked before—it’s about responding to the … Read More

When Votes Don’t Matter

In Kentucky, voters in all 120 counties rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed tax dollars to be sent to private, charter, or religious schools. Every county. Rural and urban. Red and blue. That wasn’t confusion or coincidence — it was a statewide decision to protect public education. Kentuckians said they want public money to stay in public schools. … Read More

Bloom Where You’re Planted

Bloom where you’re planted It means flourishing regardless of circumstances and growing despite your environment. Such sage advice. And yet, so many of us waste precious time thinking, “… if I had a better job/found someone who loved me/made more money/had a bigger house/ etc., I’d be happy.” Or the “I’ll wait to decorate when I get a bigger house/apartment” … Read More

The Power of Purging

If you follow me on social media, you may have noticed a post or two about my newsletter trials and tribulations. Long story short, I didn’t send newsletters during the pandemic, and because of that, most of my followers had become “inactive.” When I overrode those protocols to reach out to readers on the original list, my mail service sent … Read More

Practicing Gratitude

Every morning I wake with my brain already running full tilt. Thoughts race with everything from creating grocery lists to subplots I should add in the latest work in progress. It’s like my subconscious keeps working while I go to sleep. In college, I’d listen to whatever song I had to memorize before going to bed. In the morning, I’d … Read More

The Life We Choose

There are people in this world that light up a room when they enter it. They live so boldly, love so deeply, and have an ocean of compassion, so much so that it’s a joy just being around them. Ann was such a person. Fierce as a lion with a heart the size of Texas, she was a force all … Read More

Enough

Enough I’m so tired of hate. I’m tired of people excusing hate. I’m tired of people giving their loyalty to politicians that never earned their trust. I’m tired of lies. And conspiracy theories. And alternative facts. And willful ignorance. I’m tired of this damn virus stealing bright souls that served as beacons in this dark world. I’m tired of greed. … Read More

We Must Do Better

I once tried to pay for gas with counterfeit money. True story. It was years ago. I’d just taken the kiddos to one of those summer carnivals that had sprung up overnight in an old mall’s parking lot. The kids always loved to go, even though I wouldn’t let them ride the shoddy roller coasters. We went for the smaller … Read More

Sanity in the Storm

March 2020 officially goes under the “never would I ever” category of life. Never would I ever have thought I’d see a pandemic, nor the ravaging effects on what quarantining an entire nation does to the American psyche. When all this started I thought I’d found a silver lining in a storm cloud. Being forced to stay home meant having … Read More

The Heart of the Holidays

I love this time of year.  Writing, social media, and all things internet are put on the back burner. Great food is served with a heaping side of memories and camaraderie. We are a diverse bunch from various social classes and political views, but there’s a tacit agreement among everyone to leave polarization and politics at the door. We simply … Read More